Updated June 21, 2017 11:59:48

Photo: Rio Tinto director John Varley resigns from the board over fraud charges relating to his time running the UK investment bank Barclays (Reuters: Andrew Winning)

Rio Tinto director John Varley has resigned from the global miner's board after being charged by Britain's Serious Fraud Office.

The charges relate to a five-year investigation dating back to the Global Financial Crisis when Mr Varley was the chief executive of the investment big bank, Barclays.

UK-based Mr Varley was one of four former senior Barclays executives charged with fraud over an emergency fundraising deal with investors in Qatar during the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

Mr Varley was a senior independent director on Rio's board, having been appointed in 2011. He was also chair of the board's remuneration committee.

Rio Tinto issued a statement confirming Mr Varley "will step down with immediate effect".

"I am very grateful for John's outstanding contribution over the five or so years he has been on the board," Rio Tinto chair Jan du Plessis said in the statement.

Mr Varley was the chief executive officer at Barclays when the bank — along with serval other big financiers such as Lloyds and the Royal Bank of Scotland — faced collapse and potential nationalisation.

Along with Mr Varley, the SFO also charged the ex-chairman of Barclay's Middle East investment banking arm Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris, a former CEO of the bank's wealth division and Richard Boath, a former European head of financial institutions.

The investigation focussed on deals associated with a 12 billion pound fundraising carried out in two trances with Qatari investors in June and October in 2008.

The emergency recapitalisation allowed Barclays to dodge a government bail out, a fate that befell Lloyds and RBS.

Reuters is reporting authorities have examined whether payments from Barclays to Qatar at the same time as the recapitalisation, such as around 322 million pounds in "advisory services agreements", alongside the $US3 billion loan to the Gulf state, were honest and properly disclosed.

Mr Varley is facing two charges, which each carry maximum prison sentences of 10 years.

Topics: company-news, fraud-and-corporate-crime, mining-industry, england

First posted June 21, 2017 11:38:52